So you wanna make an Irish dress?

Mind you, this is the one that's *accepted* as period (by SCA & Faire alike), but isn't necessesarily accurate.

There are a couple of places in here were you will need to make decisions on what methods/styles you want for your dress. Read though this first, so you have what you want in mind before you start.

First, make a bodice. This will be easier if you make the bodice straight-fronted, but it'll look better with a small point. It's up to you, since you're the one wearing it.

Don't finish the bottom edge yet, but put the lacing in, do the shoulders, all of that stuff. Something I've seen that looks very nice on an Irish dress are those lovely pewter lacing eyes instead of eyelets/grommets. (Get them from Grannd Garb or Dragonfly Design.)

Next, look at your fabric. If it's heavy or very thick, go with skirt v2. If it's thin, or won't have a lot of bulk when gathered, you can go with v1 or v2. (You WANT it to have gathers at the waist. A smooth waistline will look very weird with this dress. Trust me.)

For skirt 1, figure out how long you need your skirt to be. (It should reach from the bottom of your bodice to the top of your foot. You can go shorter if you need to.) Add allowances for your hem and the seam at the top, and cut three panels of fabric that length. (Use 2 panels if you're very thin, or are using 60" fabric.) Sew the pieces together at the selvedges, so you get one long rectangle. (Make sure you don't sew ALL the sides together; you want this skirt to be open in front!)

for skirt 2, find a good, full skirt pattern (a circle skirt pattern is not quite appropriate.) You want the pieces to be narrower at top than at bottom, since the reason for making it this way is to eliminate some of the bulk of the gathering. Cut the pattern, and sew the bits together, leaving the front seam unsewn.

Both skirts: hem the front edge of your skirt. Either put some non-fancy trim to cover the stitch lines, do it by hand to hide the stitching (or not, as you like), or decide that you don't mind, nobody will notice, and just run it on the machine.

For a straight-front bodice: gather the skirt onto the waist of the bodice. You can cartridge pleat if you *really* want to, but it'll look somewhat out of place. I don't advise any other pleating, really. Just gather it like you would gather anything. You can set the edge of the skirt either at the very edge of the bodice (where it opens), or you can have it back a few inches. I personally prefer the look when it goes all the way to the edge, but it'll hang open more if it doesn't meet. Stitch it on. Hem the bottom edge, and wear it with a skirt and chemise or leine, and you're good to go. Have fun!

For a pointy-front bodice: this is where it gets a little tricky, but once you get the geometry of this in your head, it'll make sense, not be hard (just a bit time-consuming), and it'll look very good

Find the spot on your bodice where the curve for the point begins. Mark it somehow, since you'll need to find it again. Now, decide where you want your skirt to begin (again, I think these look better if the skirt and the front edge of the bodice match up). Using chalk, or just imagining where it is, draw a straight line to the front edge, continuing the line on the back and sides of the bodice. Gather the skirt onto this line, but only stitch across the sides and back, from the spot where the curve begins to the corresponding spot on the other side.

Run a gathering stitch, or some other method of not losing all of your gathering on the parts that aren't sewn yet. Turn the bodice over, so you can see the front of the bodice on top of the skirt. Trace the curve onto the gathered fabric, and unpin/remove it from the skirt.

Cut away the top edge of the skirt at the line you just drew. Now, gather that new edge to the curved bit of the bodice, and stitch. Hem it, put it on over a skirt and chemise or leine, and you're done!

Now, go get lots of compliments!

Oh yeah, this works very well with nice, heavy linen, and probably wool (though I haven't gotten my hands on any to play with yet..) Any fabric with a good drape is suitable for this, but please recall that this IS a peasant style, and stay away from velvets.

If you simply *must* have this in velvet, you can add a stomacher and a farthingdale, cartridge pleat the skirt, and add sleeves, and it'll make very nice court garb.